Whistleblowers?

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WHISTLEBLOWERS?

They're Time magazine's Persons of the Year, three women
photographed
in the classic resolute Silkwood mode. (Male whistleblowers always seem
to be bitter Dilberts who got passed over for a window office.) Not to
diminish their accomplishments - what they did took guts, yes. But what
did they do? Two tattled on corporate corruption. One revealed that
the FBI is so hobbled by bureaucracy and indecision it would give a
parking permit in the Hoover Building to Al Kayda's Ryder Truck
Company. (And it would forbid any agents from doing a background
check.) Nice job; thanks. But these were the most important people of
2002? Not soldiers, not Saddam, not Condi? Who do you have to kill to
get some respect around here?

Early rumors had the Person of the Year as The Terrorist - an honest
choice. The award is not meant to glorify. It's meant to demonstrate
who had the greatest impact on our world. If Bin Laden rose from the
dead, grew 50 feet tall, climbed the Empire State Building and swatted
away planes, he wouldn't be Man of the Year, but if his minions blew
off a dirty bomb in St. Peter's Square on Easter morning, The
Terrorist might indeed be in the running.

Remember how 2002 began; sighs of relief that The Terrorist didn't
blow
up the crowds in Times Square. The year ended with the same: whew, The
Terrorist didn't blow up malls during Geegaw and Sweater-Buying
Season. We've been looking over our shoulders all year, watching the
threat level spike up and dip down, always waiting for the other shoes
on the millipede of International Islamic Terror to drop. We've read
about smallpox, the Bali bombing, the speculation that Al Qaeda has
suitcase nukes. Don't know about you, but if a whistleblower coughed
on
me or showed up with a ticking Samsonite, I wouldn't worry much.

But Whistleblower it is, so let's name another: Sen. Patty Murray,
D-Wa. She's blown the whistle on her party's tolerance of
pacifistic
root-cause apologists. First she speaks to a high school about why
bin Laden was lionized. "He's been out in these countries for decades,
building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day
care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are
extremely grateful. We haven't done that."

Yes, bin Laden was loved not for striking the Jews and
Crusaders, but
for an international network of day care centers. They were a godsend
to the legions of working women in Afghanistan. How they poured from
their houses in their smart skirts, briefcases swinging with joy,
marching off to work. Then they were all beaten for being shameless,
and their names reported to the Ministry of Hitting Women with Sticks
for future reference.

In a subsequent statement, Murray clarified her remarks, assured
us
that bin Laden was "evil," and that her remarks were twisted by the
"right-wing establishment." This implies that her remarks were
understood by the left-wing establishment. And perhaps they were - not
just understood, but applauded. There are people on the hard left who
believe that you can smash the terror networks by sending the B-2s to
drop Pampers and contraceptives. Poverty causes resentment, which is
why the majority of 9/11 hijackers hailed from that Haiti of the Dunes,
Saudi Arabia.

The Lott story showed how the GOP will kick out members of the
idiotarian faction when they slip up and speak their mind. The
Republicans are no more enamored of segregation than the Democrats are
in love with surrender; there are some old-boy dolts on the right who
are tone-deaf on race, and when they get a case of the stupids, they
should pay. Ditto the Democrats who still think the US military is
devoted solely to napalming Vietnamese children. But the latter never
seems to suffer. We see how the Dems treat a Bonior, a McDermott, a
McKinney, a Murray. Anything short of a Lott-scale internecine purge
might suggest most Dems agree with her.

Perhaps there's a memo from the Democratic National Committee, urging
everyone to sit tight and let this blow over. There would be a word for
someone who leaked it to the press.

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